


Mark Hoppus – The Coffee Snob

by swv



Category: Blink-182
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, First Dates, First Meetings, Fluff, Grumpy Hoppus, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 10:15:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13925019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swv/pseuds/swv
Summary: Mark meets a guy with no sense of taste for coffee, and takes it upon himself to teach him about how to properly drink it. But he gets a bit more than he bargained for.





	Mark Hoppus – The Coffee Snob

**Author's Note:**

> Hello~
> 
> I have had this in the back in my mind for almost a year and am so pleased to finally have finished it. It didn’t turn out as I thought it would, but I hope you’ll like it.  
> It’s just a sweet little thing. I hope.
> 
> Everyone own themselves and I don’t claim to have any right to anyone. I don’t make money of my writing and if my writing can be of interest to anyone else then I’m glad but this is mainly to relax myself.
> 
> And finally I’d like to thank L and F for beta reading this! ♡

Mark had been one of the last to arrive at the 7 am lecture in English literature. He hated the early lectures but most of the seats at the back of the classroom were free and he decided to sit at the very back and half sleep his way through the lesson. He sorely regretted snoozing instead of getting up in time to stop by the best coffee cart at campus and get his morning fix before class.

 

Just as the lecture was about to start – the professor had literally just started the projector – a guy sunk down in the seat next to Mark. He had dyed black hair and black eyeliner smudged around his eyes; looking the very picture of a college student that had slept an hour in his clothes after last nights party before hurrying to class. Mark hadn’t seen the other guy in class before, not that it meant anything; he didn’t know most of the other students since the semester had just started.

 

When the guy placed a cup of coffee on the table before him – from Mark’s favourite coffee cart, mind you – and snapped open an energy drink, pouring it into the cup and downing it in one go Mark’s jaw dropped. He was handsome, in a dirty punk kid kind of way, but how he drank his coffee made Mark’s stomach turn.

 

The guy turned to Mark and rested his head against the table in a defeated way that made it look like he had some great regrets after last night. “I think I’m dying.”

 

His eyes looked bloodshot and Mark didn’t know what to say to that. A number of less appropriate answers popped into his mind, like “ _after drinking your coffee like that, you deserve it”_ or “ _you sure you’re not dead already? Because you look it”_. Mark decided on closing his mouth and leaned back in his own seat, trying to focus on the lecture instead.

 

Mark tried to not look at the guy dying next to him and instead focus on the class, but after ten minutes his focus shifted again as he saw the other move. He had rested his forehead against the table in front of him and Mark was almost sure that his breathing was coming in short and unsteady breathes; like he was trying to hold back from being sick.

 

“Hey.” Mark whispered and poked the other’s shoulder. “You okay? Gonna puke?”

 

“I‘m not sure just yet.”

 

Mark groaned and looked around them only to see some of the other students giving them dark glances. It was like they thought Mark was just as annoying as the clearly hungover, and quite possibly still drunk, guy! He panicked a bit and leaned away from the guy.

 

“Okay, if you don’t puke on my shoes during class I’ll buy you breakfast after.” Mark whispered.

 

The look on the other’s face, wide and surprised eyes and slightly parted lips, as he turned to Mark was adorable. Though Mark would rather die than admit that the word had passed his mind.

 

“Seriously, you’re the best.” The guy smiled and reached out his hand to Mark. “I’m Matt.”

 

Mark shook his hand and introduced himself, but then a girl in the row before them cleared her throat pointedly and they both settled down into a slightly uncomfortable silence. Mark leaned back again and closed his eyes, hoping to memorize as much as possible of the lecture so that he didn’t have to take notes; it was too damn early for that. He heard the guy – _Matt_ – shuffle in his seat a little every now and then, but otherwise he managed to concentrate quite well on the professor.

 

A finger poked him in the ribs and when Mark opened his eyes he saw Matt lean close to him. “I think you fell asleep, class is over.”

 

“Fuck fuck fuck!” Mark mumbled, realizing that most students had started packing their things around them and was moving towards the exit. “Did I miss anything important?”

 

Matt smiled and it looked a bit too calculating. “Buy me breakfast and I’ll fill you in on what you missed.”

 

Mark looked at Matt, he hadn’t puked and Mark had kind of promised to buy the guy breakfast already so it wasn’t like he could refuse, but it irritated him that Matt looked so smug. He felt like he needed to take back some of his dignity in some way.

 

“Yeah, need to teach you to drink coffee like a human anyway.”

 

Matt just snickered and got up. “Whatever, let’s go!”

 

It turned out that neither of them had class until in the afternoon so Mark took Matt to one of the better coffee shops off campus. It was a good place and Matt seemed to like the “ _animal cruelty free food choices” –_ his words – and Mark sighed. Of course he would get stuck with a rabid vegan. Eventually Matt decided on vegan pancakes while Mark ordered scrambled eggs and bacon. But when Matt ordered an abomination of a coffee, caramel latte with soy milk and marshmallows of all things, Mark had to protest.

 

“Forget what he said.” Mark interrupted Matt with a smile at the barista. “We want a pot pour-over coffee, Geisha if you have it in, and a small jug of soy milk.”

 

The girl smiled and cast a quick look at Matt. “Teaching another one how to drink coffee, Mark?”

 

Mark sighed when Matt whined and rested his head on his shoulder; the guy was way too affectionate with him for someone he just met an hour ago. He pushed Matt towards the tables, motioning for him to go sit down before turning back to the girl – Amanda, if he remembered correctly – to pay for them both. “You should have seen what he had in his coffee in class this morning!”

 

“I bet it was scandalous.” She laughed and Mark could just sigh and shake his head.

 

“It was like one third coffee and two thirds energy drink, it’s a wonder he didn’t puke all over the girls in the row before us.”

 

Amanda laughed again and promised to bring some real coffee out to them before Mark turned to the back of the coffee shop, seeing Matt sit in the very back of the half empty room. Matt had that adorable look on his face again that Mark couldn’t defend himself against; it made his stomach flip in strange ways and his heart had decided that it should beat twice as fast all of a sudden. Mark decided that it must be because he hadn’t had breakfast yet – _it definitely had nothing to do with Matt!_

 

Matt smiled as Mark sat down across from him. “So, you’re some sort of coffee snob or do you just want to impress me into dating you?”

 

Mark sunk deeper into his seat, fighting the blush that began to spread on his cheeks under Matt’s amused stare. Mark decided to look away, studying the other guests and pretending to not have heard Matt’s comment.

 

He was eternally grateful when Amanda broke the awkward silence a few minutes later by bringing them their food and Mark busied himself with starting to fix their coffee while Matt watched him almost hypnotised.

 

And when Matt took the first sip of his coffee and then looked up at Mark with those wide eyes, Mark couldn’t keep back a victorious smile. “And that’s how coffee _should_ taste.”

 

“For real, this is the best coffee I’ve ever had!” Matt studied Mark a bit too close for comfort a moment and Mark started to shuffle in his seat under the intense gaze. “Do you know alot about coffee?”

 

Mark shrugged and turned to his breakfast. “Some, my parents import coffee. Kinda grew up with it.”

 

They ate in silence for a couple of minutes before Matt started to tell him about class and what he had missed during his involuntary nap.

 

“If you want we could maybe study together some time over coffee?” Matt asked and Mark met his eyes; they looked so blue with the black makeup still smudged around them, and Mark’s heart skipped a beat.

 

Was Matt coming on to him? It was an enticing thought and a look down at Matt’s pretty, full lips made his stomach flip again.

 

“Sure, still have a lot of coffee to show you anyway.”

 

Matt laughed and pulled his coffee closer to himself, smiling coyly at Mark above the rim of the cup. “You just wanna date me, but you keep telling yourself that.”

 

Mark blushed red and let out a mockingly annoyed sigh into his coffee; he realized that Matt was gonna be a handful but he was pretty sure that it would be worth the trouble.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! ♡  
> And that was that, feel free to leave a comment or contact me on tumblr.  
> https://placeoflovelythings.tumblr.com/


End file.
